Pune: The recently declared results of Higher Secondary Certificate (HSC) - Class XII Board examination - have left the parents and students in confusion and fear.
While the result turned out to be quite lower than the previous year’s, the extravagant scores of the candidates in other boards have increased insecurity among the students, as to whether they will get admissions to good colleges or not.
However, education experts in the city have strongly asserted that there are several factors that determine the differences in the results of state boards and the others boards like the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) and the Council for the Indian School Certificate Examinations (CISCE), which conducts the ISC examination, and a comparison without taking these into consideration would be unfair.
Number of students
“The number of students appearing for the Class XII examination under the CBSE or CISCE boards is much lower compared to that of the state boards,” said education expert AL Deshmukh.
He added, “A huge number of parents, especially from urban and semi-urban areas have been attracted towards the CBSE, mainly because of the craze for English speaking.
However, it has to be understood that while most parents whose children go to English medium CBSE schools are educated, aware and quite well-off, that is not the case with the students at state board affiliated schools.”
Pointing out that a huge number of students appearing for the State Board examinations belong to lower middle class or below poverty line families, their education mostly depends on whatever is taught at schools, as most do not take any additional coaching.
Number of subjects and method of assessment
“A CBSE/CISCE candidate appears for five examinations of five subjects, while a State Board candidate appears for six. Further, the State Board has cancelled internal marking system this year onwards, which continues to exist in the other boards. All of these certainly affect the scoring and passing patterns,” Deshmukh said.
Maharashtra State Board’s former Mumbai divisional secretary Basanti Roy, reacting to this, said the way the papers are checked in the different boards also varies.
“The paper checking is done quite liberally in the CBSE/CISCE boards. In the State Board, the methods are stringent. But I believe that the marking should continue to be realistic, as is the approach of the State Board. The main reason behind the insecurity amongst parents is the competition to get into good colleges. But most of the times, colleges are but a means of social status, rather than good education,” she added.
Deshmukh added that there is not much to worry regarding the State Board’s syllabus or assessment methods.
“After all, most of the students excelling at civil services, or other competitive examinations are products of Marathi medium schools run by the State Board. The Board does need to improve its methods, but there is no way to prove that the assessment at CBSE/CISCE is better,” the educationist stated.